Some people would rather die than think; quote Bertrand Russell

'Philosophy' is about struggle to reach wise BEHAVIOR, but unpurposely 'understanding' is seen as main source of 'wisdom'.
This way philosophy strenghtens the dualism of 'Mind' and Body in the Western Paradigm, through tranquillizing victims with the mental drug 'rationality'.
Philosophy is not a science, it is not a 'rational' program aiming at 'bigger than earth' eternal truth by 'thinking' very deep.

Priests of Western Science (scientists) explain this exploitation supporting poisoning quite circular with the EMPTY activity "thinking about thinking". Like nightmare about dream


Anyway although 'philosophy' is a western religion (hard mental drug), my 'intuition' feels that making experience into consistent behavior around survival/love/respect/... is evolutionary behavior. Human animals learned to do this in common sense meditation. Therefore I wrote this article.
In 'Rational' view meditation has no purpose and no objective. That is like stating: experience is useless, an IBM computer based on 'rational' logic can unravel The 'rational' Laws of Nature.

The fundamental follower of 'rationalism' Ayn Rand (a rigid 'Mao Tse Tung' of 'rationalism') describes 'emotion' (the logic of evolution) in written Wars on Terrorism as: a subconsciously accumulated junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears; and (quite circular) her own religion 'rationality' (philosophy) as: a conscious, 'rational', disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation .

But seen in much MORE value free common sense meditation aims at tuning emotion with local reality.
'Philosophy' as a term is pointing at educating the religion known as rationality. Many present postmodern 'philosophers' are only worth a good laugh, but on the long run only harmless walking and talking fossiles. Using creativity to extend intuition is part of life.

Dogma
(1)


The practice of 'thinking' points to one's common sense. In ancient Ionian societies of Greek-speaking people this unfortunately came to be seen as 'higher consciousness' (an eternal IMMATERIAL Unidentified Flying Object called 'spirit locked in a mortal body).
This fantasy was introduced by Hellenic Priests of Alexander the Terrible in Jerusalem. The Judeans protested but the Israelians collaborated. After ages later Judean Christianity was condemned in the Council of Chalcedon (451 AC), it were the Israelian Hebrews who presented themselves in Europe as true Christians.
A fantasy essentially different from the Asian common sense view 'Unity of Body and Brainproducts', as seen in 'chi' and 'meditating' . 'Chi' was seen as 'pagan' fantasy and replaced by immaterial 'spirits' from the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, the in superiority (and inherently slavery) believing mentor of Alexander the 'Great'.

Since then this zombie behavior body brain-addiction split became house doctrine of the Catholic and Byzantine Churches. Not though of the Middle East Christian religions, who until today refuse to believe in hallucinations called 'god', and only believe in common humans differing in talents. The Middle East Christian religions were given a knock out by the Mohammedanism (the Islamic copy of Roman Christianity). 'Philosophy' in the Catholic Western World became similar to 'spirituality'. This doctrine was formalized during 'Enlightenment' by the french Catholic priest Rene Descartes in the logic rationalism, and became the behavior 'rationality'.

Circular 'rational' 'reasoning': philosophy has to be 'rational', common sense leads to 'rational' confusion and 'rational' failure.

'Rationalism' was accepted by the western religon science, giving rise to the Western myth that 'philosophy' outside church institutions is not a religion.

The making of a Western myth: 'Metaphysics' in 'rationalism' sets 'the parameters' of 'good' = 'the truth'.
The logic 'Rationalism' based on an abstract good-evil split of reality became a total paradigm shift (reality redesign) in European culture. Not only changing reality, but making a virtual reality. Cutting of ties of behavior with quite common sense Asian Buddhism. And with African common sense tradition, changing tribes in peaceful cooperation in tribes in bloody tribal wars. 'Rationalism' also settled VERY strongly in Protestant US culture.










Dogma
(2)

The Rational Doctrine (good-evil thinking) was spread succesfully worldwide as the doctrine of Law and Order by the Catholic Empire and The British Empire. Basis for Cold Wars and Wars on Terrorism.
In the 21st century the US splits Iraq and the whole Muslim World in 'good' tranquillized allies and 'evil' terrorists (freedom fighters). At the costs of say 100 deaths per day and around a billion dollars per day the US goverment enforces 'Law and Order' in Afghanistan and Iraq, and tries with help of Europe to blackmail Iran into 'law and order'. 'Law and Order' must be very profitable to capitalism, to be worth such HUGE 'investments'. The Americans Puritans since they fled from Europe during Enlightenment successfully divided reality in 'good' virtual reality' and evil common sense reality.

High time to recognize 'understanding' as one of many MODELS of life.

The Catholic IDEA 'spirituality' and the 'rational' CONCEPT 'understanding' divides body (flesh or DNA-computer) and the dreaming part of brain (spirit or mind), creating a dreamworld ('heaven' or 'rational reality'). That results in brilliant non-sense like: The Helpers of the Heavenly Heart of Mother Mary (God's Guerilla's) are devoted to bringing 'God's mission'. 'Translated': the fe-male priests of 'God' with warmth, openness, hospitality and religiosity come to firmly annihilate ALL pagan prejudice, to replace the seeing reality as 'The One' with 'God's Good-Evil Vision' (catholic schools, catholic churches, catholic universities, catholic museums, catholic social centers, catholic political parties, catholic laws,....). With names like Our Lady of Love Mission, Holy Mary House, Faith Academy etcetera. Full of pastors Example: The most influential 'Archdiocese' in Asia is The Diocese of Manila. This 'diocese' amongst others owns 8.5% of the 'Bank of the Philippine Islands'.

Dogma
(3 and End)

Nothing new: already the Romans used 'spirituality' to rob their colonies of gold, silver and 'servi' (servants or 'slaves'). For instance the HUGE amount of gold robbed from the 'Persian outpost' Judah when destroying the Jerusalem temple was used to finance the enormous circus for 'gladiators' called 'Colosseum'. At start most slaves though used to be hunted in nearby Serbia (slave country)

If your teachers start using phrases like: The facts result in the understanding that .... THEN be terribly cautious and realize that only 'rational' aspects are meant. Rational 'facts' tell NOTHING about the majority of other aspects.
If your teacher has servants ('servus' is the Latin word pointing at 'slave'), can't repair his/her own car, can't cook, can't clean own house or mow own lawn, then be sure this teacher is 'rational'. And take his/her words in college as statements in 'rational logic'. That means only TRUE or FALSE when applying this logic. But without meaning in common sense.
If he/she has all these skills himself/herself, is seriously tring to learn the local language and can survive locally alone on local salary THEN be sure he/she has a lot of common sense.

'Rational' facts point at 'rational' notions (abstract) like: 'economic', 'profit', 'gain', 'REASONABLE', scientific, law and order, 'stock exchange', 'balance of power. These 'rational' words indicate 'rational' behavior that you are supposed to take for 'sense'.
'Money' in common sense is a tool to simplify trading (exchanging goods). 'Money' in rational' use is 'economic', is a tool to acquire 'profit' or 'gain', ..
'Money' in common sense meaning is closely related to happiness (it assists your creativity).
'Money' in rational meaning points at individual egoism.

History Weaving (1)

Evolution might be compared to weaving a multidimensional cloth (it helps to use common sense notions). Some knots in the cloth disappear, others take partial repairing. And very seldom a part of the cloth has to be rewoven. For partial and total reweaving evolution uses mutants. Such mutants by having slightly different senses see 'mistakes' in a cultural cloth of evolution. They (mutants = prophets) immediately start cultural reweaving. As long as earth environments uses different languages, that takes several prophets in the same period (like the trio Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus).
Zoroaster and Jesus were preceded by Abraham. Since earth culture again can be 'reached' by 1 language (English), in the 21st century 1 prophet (The One) will do.

Splitting mental processes in learning by trial and error (intuition) and learning by thinking (pure reasoning) is quite artificial and peculiar. Especially if you realize that 'understanding' (reason) is an Enlightenment myth pointing at intuition made consistent by use of only 1 logic. That was rational Logic, a formalization of the ethics around slavery of the early Roman catholic Church.
But Immanuel Kant in the very late Middle Ages used his Critique of Pure Reason (read 'critique' as 'praise') to create a mental religion ('science') around rational reasoning, and ignored intuition. Kant saw rational reasoning using Roman Christian Laws of Nature as The only Path to THE (protestant) Truth. This way he caused a near to total paradigm shift (in his own words a 'Copernican Revolution') in the Western World


Especially conservative protestants who had fled to the US after the French Revolution used the rules written down by their hero's Martin Luther and Immanuel Kant to produce 'weird' views, and perfected the art of 'formal lying'. Western Europe in lesser degree also became seriously infected.

In Kant's view: In (empirical) science we analyze experiences but learn nothing anymore, 'understanding' takes reasoning using METAphysics (fantasy).
(The Joker: take care, 'consciousness' and 'understanding' are Enlightenment myths) . Or common sense was considered to hide truth and as 'subjective', while 'pure reasoning' (using fantasy) was seen as 'objective'. METAphysics as described by Kant in his Prolegomena produces the rules to 'see' 'Kantian Reality' ('understanding').

Dual processes 'thinking' and 'understanding' (like 'philosophy'), have egoistic goals like individually 'getting rich', individually 'getting power' or individually 'getting high IQ'.
Meditation has as simple purpose to be useful for common sense behavior in local society, by training the human senses to accept signals from local reality without using local filters (prejudices like 'rationality') .

History Weaving 2

Kant's hallucination 'understanding' is only juggling with basic Roman Christian views (seen as laws of nature). Juggling doesn't change the balls, only forces them in nice figures. Those 'rational' descriptions were seen as objective, and as result of THE Laws of Nature (Roman Christian 'a priori'). That's why light suddenly had a 'wave' shape, because it was described with a 'rational' sinus function.
Though light-units only appear to have something simular to frequency and position described by such a sinus function. Just like electrons light-units are somewhere in a 'cloud'. Imagining that light units move in shape of a sinus is even counterproductive, it's trying to force light into Newtonian parameters.

Creating a border between presumed subjective body experiences and so called objective abstract thought fits perfectly in a 99% rational view. It's like calling somebody a terrorist (using unfamiliar thoughts), when your intuition 'knows': this person is fighting for life. In the western stronghold of Roman Christian thought The USA this mind-body-split was used to justify torturing escaped slaves.

Kant had to invent the suspect concept of 'a priori' to stick the rational concept 'subjective' to common sense intuition (now saying that torture is inhumane was labelled as 'subjective'). That way the Roman Christian idea 'property' was presumed to have higher value than 'honoring life'. A negro became 'slave' and 'property' without rights after having been caught on a man-hunt of European christian sailors and being transported as animal to the New World. There he/she was sold on an auction to an American christian slave owner, to work without payment till death.

There is only One Reality

The border between empirical physics and abstract metaphysics became common sense, but in fact it is nothing but a since long outdated concept. This border was quite useful in an ever more rational world, but it's merely a rational invention by guys like Descartes and Hume. But Descartes with rationalism only formalized a body-mind-split with its origin already in the start of the Roman Catholic Empire. And then only by being 'blessed' by Immanuel Kant got popular in circles of Christian Science.

Maybe Kant was the inspiration of rational thinking, because he was a fantastic speaker. But he admired Hume and therefore tried to make the metaphysical (rational) world fit natural experience (in fact tried to fit it to Roman Christian concepts).

Since Descartes the influence of rationalism only grew. Capitalism afterwards even made it stronger. That's why the strict line between empiric physics and abstract metaphysics lasted so long. In fact every 'science' is a 'mind-world' or fantasy (see mini-tractatus), and mid 20th century according to the brilliant thinker Thomas Kuhn marked by the absense of critical debate. Of course often such stationary data bases pure reason (but still that is pure abstract philosophy).
Descartes is not to blame personally, because he realized in "Discourse on the Method": Nothing can be imagined which is too strange or incredible to have been said by some philosopher.

Dominance of rational behavior resulted in a split between empirical skill (called labor) and the talent of abstract modelling (often called 'ratio' or 'thinking'). Intelligence was presumed to be equal to IQ, and called ratio , in fact metaphysical and a value fit in technology only. Mid 20th century the philosopher Herbert Marcuse would speak about One Dimensional Man. That's because in creativity other dimensions became neglected. In general 'intuition', or practically all feelings or moods without being caused by an abstract view as trigger. But abstract ideas 'create' own logics. Without realizing anymore that this was only the view in the rationalism of Christian Science, it became common to make the ABSTRACT division normal and anormal

rational	irrational
objective	subjective
science	intuition
normal	anormal

Objectivity is a local myth

Cultural Relativism learns: EVERYTHING is relative, objective science is a myth (the fishes in your aquarium see 'life outside' as an ugly 2 eyed monster).

For sake of clarity it is better to speak of mathematical philosophy (abstract or fantasy), and (especially) of physical philosophy (empirical). And to mention the decisive cultural view. This to stress that WITHIN some culture they study cultural views on the world, based on basic concepts (or formalized fantasies). So only INSIDE such a mind-world, one can objectively USE the concepts of this system of thought. Much of this view has after ages on earth became common sense.

Karl Popper though he became a hero of absolute Christian Science said about this that there are no 'hard' experiences. These only get a context by using some suitable theory and as such never can be can be more than triggers of scientific 'knowledge'. In other words such knowledge is not objective outside human thinking, and is nothing more than a 'made on the earth' human made product.

Why seperate school for religion and church of religion? (I.e. 'philosophy' and science, belief and politics, drug designers and drug dealers.

And there is no metaphysics, because no thought is objective outside its own mind-world. So for people studying physics everything that does not fit their way of thought is metaphysics and vice versa. Meta only means 'outside', and thus physics is meta-metaphysics.

Humans have views, part of these became common during evolution, and the rest diverges. There are limitless views, based or not on what the philospher Lakatos called research fields, a scientific and difficult way to describe experience.

Of course the difference between a technical approach (based on experience) and pure reasoning remains useful. It's like psychology of human doings and philosophy of thinking.

Intelligence is what we hope to find outside the earth. In our world this is the ability to show other than linear behavior. So to act unexpectedly (creative), and not in the line of experience. Inherent in creativity is shocking by testing weird standpoints.

But Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg wrote that he mainly noticed philosophers who refuted other philosophers.You may assume that there is some truth in this statement.

Maybe the majority of philosophers drowned too much in the 'rational' myth 'objectivity' (playing god), resulting in avoiding intimacy ('rational' advise = do not get too close to your subject) and avoiding social life.

The Value of Directed Meditating

According to Bertrand Russell in 'The value of philosophy': 'If the study of philosophy has any value at all for others than students of philosophy, it must be only indirectly, through its effects upon the lives of those who study it.'

So if you're happy studying it, then this happiness inflicts on others. 

In the same chapter Russell writes: 'But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. '

And he concludes: 'Thus, to sum up our discussion of the value of philosophy; Philosophy is to be studied for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation;

The value of philosophy for Russell is: (1) enlarging cultural relativism or wisdom, (2) improving our intellectual imagination, and (3) decreasing absolutism.

Perhaps he meant that is what philosophy should do. Points 1 and 2 are more or less similar, it is improving wisdom and creativity like any study should. Rests the probably main point of making one less self assured, because of an viewing 'the problems of life' also from different perspectives.

Those philosophers who act like their main job is disagreeing with one another are temporarily blind for other perspectives. For Bertrand Russell these are not real philosophers. So if quarrelling is the impression of the majority of people about most philosophers, then there is a lot of VISION BLINDNESS (i.e. addiction to a dominant vision, that can only be 'cured' by a paradigm shift).

Anyway, meditating should be relevant to everyone simply because we tend not to do much thinking. That may seem a minor inconvenience. But it helps to discuss your views with other people, to learn what they think about similar problems

'Philosophy' gave a negative view on 'authority' and 'common sense'. Human life is built on these features, and denying them results in fascism.

Finally, let me add one thing. The 2 greatest Western thinkers of the 20th century, Wittgenstein and Kuhn, both had a mathematical background. Wittgenstein was mathematician, and Kuhn a physicist. That's no coincidence. To make emotional behavior more consistent with use of logic you have to be skilled in mathematical logic. If not, don't mess with cultural behavior.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn etcetera etcetera were bachelors. Discovering original behavior and being married is asking too much. Educating children (training them in tradition) at present opposes re-viewing history. But children can be a perfect help in looking with 'fresh view' (pure curiosity). That takes realizing that children of around 12 are mentally adult human animals (just need fine-tuning)

Zarah2nd
Dec. 2002 (essentially revised in June 2005, in December 2005, and again in June 2007).
Also published in Pathways of Philosophy nr 48


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